DW BUREAU / Shimla

The Congress government in Himachal Pradesh has resolved pending issues despite facing political turmoil, natural disasters and economic challenges and will take the works it has done to the public, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said on Thursday. The previous BJP government never sought solutions to the issues and let those linger, he alleged.

"The Congress government has resolved pending problems, faced challenges of economic crises, monsoon disaster and political turmoil and (we) will take the works done in the past 15 months to the court of the public," Sukhu told reporters.

"We have only faced challenges in the past 15 months on economic, natural disaster and political fronts and resolved pending issues. The (previous) BJP government never sought solutions to the issues and just lingered on the matters," he added.

The chief minister has been touring the state in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections and has made several announcements.

Recently, he announced Rs 1,500 per month for women aged 18-59, the notification for which was issued on Thursday.

Rs 800 crore would be spent on the Indira Gandhi Pyari Behna Sukh Samman Nidhi Yojna and benefit more than five lakh women annually, Sukhu had said.

The Cabinet on Wednesday also gave its nod for the Himachal Pradesh Rajya Chayan Aayog to declare results of the Junior Officer Assistant (Information Technology).

Candidates who had appeared for the examination held protests to demand the declaration of results for some time.

Rajinder Rana and Sudhir Sharma -- two of the six rebel Congress MLAs who had voted in favour of BJP nominee Harsh Mahajan in the Rajya Sabha polls -- had been raising the issue of the results declaration and employment in general.

Responding to Sukhu's comments, the BJP's state unit chief Rajiv Bindal said the chief minister is diverting the public from the real issues by bringing "old guarantees in new capsules".

He also questioned how more than five lakh women could get pension from April-May as the process of filling forms has to done and the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls would be implemented soon.

The real issue is that the Congress closed all the institutions as soon as it came to power, about 22 lakh women in the 18-59 age bracket promised Rs 1,500 per month were not given a penny. Instead of giving one lakh jobs, aspirants were forced to protest, Bindal said.

Sukhu also said notification for the Lok Sabha polls is yet to be issued and the names of the Congress' candidates will be announced accordingly.

The BJP has already announced retaining Anurag Thakur and Suresh Kashyap from Hamirpur and Shimla. The Congress has not announced any candidate so far.

There are four Lok Sabha seats in Himachal Pradesh -- Shimla, Mandi, Hamirpur and Kangra.

Union Minister Thakur -- the son of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister PK Dhumal -- is seeking to return to the Lok Sabha for a fifth consecutive time. Kashyap, a former BJP state unit chief, will contest the Lok Sabha polls for the second time from Shimla.

The BJP won all four Lok Sabha seats from Himachal Pradesh in 2019.

Krishan Kapoor had won by a margin of 4,77,623 votes (4.77 lakh) in Kangra, Ram Swaroop Sharma by 4,05,459 (4.05 lakh) votes in Mandi, Thakur by 3,99,572 (3.99 lakh) votes in Hamirpur and Kashyap by 3,27,515 (3.27 lakh) votes in Shimla.

Sharma's death, however, led to a bypoll in Mandi in 2021, which was won by Pratibha Singh -- the Congress' state unit president and the wife of former chief minister Virbhadra Singh -- by 8,766 votes.
(editor@dailyworld.in)